Why there is water scarcity

Maurizio Iaccarino; Maurizio Iaccarino

doi:10.3934/geosci.2021030

AIMS Geosciences

2021, Volume 7, Issue 3: 529-541. doi: 10.3934/geosci.2021030

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Review

Why there is water scarcity

Maurizio Iaccarino ^{1,2
,
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1.
Former Assistant Director General for Science at UNESCO, Paris, France
2.
Institute of Genetics and Biophysics "A Buzzati-Traverso", CNR, 111 Via Pietro Castellino, 80131 Naples, Italy

Received: 02 August 2021 Accepted: 13 September 2021 Published: 16 September 2021

During the Neolithic period very few humans (3 to 5 million) lived on Planet Earth. As described in this review, there was an excess of water to support the life of these people. After the advent of agricultural practices, the number of people, as well as the production of food, increased very much and, as a consequence, large amounts of water became necessary to support this development. The availability of water is still in large excess as compared to the needs. The lack of water is the consequence of the lack of the appropriate infrastructures required to transport water to the places where it is needed. People need water in the right places at the right moment. They ask their governments to provide it, but the answers are not satisfactory. The actions needed are at the level of improving the irrigation, the distribution of water, the growth of more efficient vegetables and many similar initiatives. What is needed is a plethora of concerted actions that require national and international initiatives. The answer is an "international" action, not an "intergovernmental" one.
- hydrological cycle,
- number of people,
- contagious diseases,
- irrigation,
- Green Revolution,
- water transportation,
- freshwater for everybody
Citation: Maurizio Iaccarino. Why there is water scarcity[J]. AIMS Geosciences, 2021, 7(3): 529-541. doi: 10.3934/geosci.2021030

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Abstract

During the Neolithic period very few humans (3 to 5 million) lived on Planet Earth. As described in this review, there was an excess of water to support the life of these people. After the advent of agricultural practices, the number of people, as well as the production of food, increased very much and, as a consequence, large amounts of water became necessary to support this development. The availability of water is still in large excess as compared to the needs. The lack of water is the consequence of the lack of the appropriate infrastructures required to transport water to the places where it is needed. People need water in the right places at the right moment. They ask their governments to provide it, but the answers are not satisfactory. The actions needed are at the level of improving the irrigation, the distribution of water, the growth of more efficient vegetables and many similar initiatives. What is needed is a plethora of concerted actions that require national and international initiatives. The answer is an "international" action, not an "intergovernmental" one.

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